Friday, September 10, 2004

The Pet Shop Boys will unveil their new soundtrack to the 1925 film Battleship Potemkin at a "unique" free concert in London's Trafalgar Square

The pop duo will perform the soundtrack with the Dresden Sinfoniker orchestra to accompany a screening of the film.

Singer Neil Tennant said: "We liked the idea that we were going to take something made in the 1920s and put contemporary electronic music to it."

He told BBC One's Breakfast that the 73-minute work includes two new songs.

Battleship Potemkin has influenced many artists and film-makers
The show is part of a season of events taking place in the square organised by Mayor Ken Livingstone and the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA).

"The ICA approached us because they knew we had a background of using film with our music - our first tour, for example, was directed by Derek Jarman," said Tennant.

Sergei Eisenstein's classic tells of a sailors' revolt in 1904, and has been a major influence on film-makers and artists.

Tennant said he was a fan of Soviet and Russian films after studying history at college.

"The director, Eisenstein, said that he wanted there to be a new soundtrack to the film every 10 years to keep it fresh," Tennant said.

He also said he and musical partner Chris Lowe were keen to discover "whether we could write an hour and a quarter of continuous music".

Tennant said the new Pet Shop Boys' soundtrack "changes the way you see the movie", emphasising its "modernist quality".

"It's really exciting in London that you have got an event you can turn up and see the premiere of a new work," he said. "It's really a completely unique event."

Artists influenced by Battleship Potemkin include Francis Bacon, who said he was haunted by the screaming mouth in the film and was inspired to use it in his own work.